Bring on the season!!

Well the season is upon us and bring it on I say. I had my first outing on Mousie to a dressage and showjumping training day. We still have plenty to work on, like the arena is NOT going to gobble him up, it was expected as he hasn't been in a pipe arena before. He got some 7's for trot work but also got 3's for the gobbling up bits. I got 8's for my riding of a green horse which was nice.
I also did a round of show jumping, was mousie first ever course as he has never jumped more than 3 jumps while at Jill, and he flew round, actually felt like a jumper. Even jumped through two doubles, one was a 1 stride and the other was a 2 stride. I was extremely impressed with him, was still green and gawking at the fills which is to be expected for a while but we got some lovely comments from a SJing lady down here that said he had a lovely jump and was a kind horse, and looks forward to see him in the future. I think he is going to need plenty of miles and lots of jumping over different things for a while to get him more confident. Hopefully this Sunday I can get someone to go out on the cross country with me, would be good if he could go with another horse to get the hang of things.

Georgia gets her new pony on the 27th Sept, a month early. The above pic is her riding BJ at the dressage day, I hardly saw her all day, the lady who owns the pony was fantastic and lead Georgia round and even took her over some cross country jumps!! BJ is just the right size for her at the momment, he is only 9hh so looks a tad small beside Mousie, could proberly walk underneath him if he want.....not that I think Mousie would let him!!


I clipped Mousie out on Saturday, was a bit of a mission as the clippers died and I had to finish him off with Gregs hair clippers, I would have liked to have done his legs aswell but his coat was too thick for Gregs hair clippers!! lol.

We had our first race meeting of the year yesterday and only Penny Parker started, Donny was the only rating 90 horse to nominate for the 1200 so he just came along for the ride.

We were hoping the Dag didn't disapoint like she did at the end of last season, We put Terry Mosley on and he did a good job, she got 5th and he reminded her that she is a race horse by smacking her to the line, she was 6 1/2 lengths behind 1st but was a big improvement from last season!! She only has a few more starts then is off to stud.

Peter Porter will start, if there is enough open horses at Southland, Catherine his jockey is busy on her bike and ready to get back on him. She gels very well with him and he settled well in his last start with her and won by 1 1/2 lengths, High Seas was 2nd and went on to win the THANO @ GRANGEWILLIAM STUD PREMIER at Riccarton Park.

10th Sept 2008

Well not much has been happening around here, as Georgia and I have had the chicken pox, which I do not recommend having to anyone!! Georgia the star breezed through hers with not many complaints, when I felt like I was getting eaten alive! Anyway 9 days later I am on the home straight, just waiting for the blisters to heal over and hopefully not scar.

The weather has been terrible for the last 3 days and we are right back to where we were a couple of weeks back with surface water everywhere. Things had dried out enough to run the level round the paddocks that were cut up with mud, not they are back to how they were before. Oh well we are on the home straight now...hopefully.

The horses are all well on target for the races on the 17th at Gore, alougth there people who think that they wont be held as already on meeting this season has been abandend due to lack on nominations. The meeting at Gore is begin run by Winton Jockey Club as the new track hasn't been trialled on yet, needs to have 2 sucessful trials before the course is signed off by NZTR.

We have 2 new additions to the family here, yet to be named, both are well bred and settling in well, after arriving this morning. They had their new covers on this morning with no hassles. Georgia is away at the momment but I can't wait for her to meet and name them, with no doubt very 'interesting names' lol. They are getting feed 5 times a day/night and living in the weaning shed, when the weather is nice they can be let out in to the mares yard which has lots of nice grass for them. I have a nice wee house all made up for them and they seem very happy. One of them is just a teany tiny wee girl, but are both healthy.

Catch Up

Penny Parker after her track work out. Well the week has been pretty busy for us, had the equine dentist come on Wednesday which was great, both Mousie and Donny's teeth were bad despite been done 6 months ago by someone less experienced. We used Regan Dunne from Invercargill and I highly recommend him. Was very good with the horses, Mousie took one look at him and had the look of "your kidding yourself if you think you are coming anywhere near me!" but Regan was very good, just stayed quietly with Mousie until he settled, and then surprised me big time by behaving himself for the rest of the time. Donny on the other hand was very naughty slamming both Greg and Regan in to the wall, and in the end had to be tied up to the young horse wall so Regan could get out the fragmants of wolf tooth out. All ended well and Greg and I were both very happy with the service we recieved.

Then on Saturday we headed to the track with Donny and Dag, was exciting as it was the first track work out of the season, both worked keenly and now its count down till our first race meeting.

Donny after his first track work out.

Today (Sunday) my brother who hasn't ridden for years hopped on Donny and did a round of the track, Donny took his job of looking after Callum very seriously and walked most of the way, never putting a foot wrong, I was so very proud of him, he just looked like an old hack!!

The next day as looking after Callum.

Another Sunny Day August 26th

Donny wishing me a happy birthday, business as usual for me. Greg was kind enough to let the horses out of the boxes before he left for work this morning so I could have a bit of a sleep in for my birthday, but after that was just a normal day.

All the horses are working very well and are on target for there first work out at the track on Saturday, should be an interesting day for both horse and rider fitness! lol.

Well we had another lovely sunny day today...sorry you lot up north that are flooding up North.

I got heaps of jobs done outside after I had a lovely lunch outside with a good friend. I got the Lawns mowed, windows washed, which isn't the easiest with the top floor of the house, and bushes tidied up with the trimmer. Yesterday I sprayed the stinging nettle and docks out of the paddocks and also hemlock in the fencelines and sprayed the drive, so it has been a productive week so far.

Both Greg and I are looking forward to our first races on the 17th Sept which we are counting down to!! Rock on season.

23rd August

Left: Nancy

Right: Mousie

Right: The young ones having a grand old time playing in the puddles with their covers off.

Left: Finishing off finding something else to do. You can see how much rain we have had prior to today.

Well we finally had a nice sunny warm day today and I had the chance to take everyones covers off. After the inital itching the young ones spent 20 mins galloping round the paddock playing. Was a great sight to watch, Greg didn't think so as much when it was time to ride Donny and Donny wanted to run too. lol.

22nd August...........remind me when summer is.

Well this weather is def getting me down. The place is very wet at the momment!! Surface water everywhere as well as mud. I can't remember what the drought was.

To the right is my luffly birthday present from Greg, they are just

define. Top marks for Provista Horse and Rider (http://www.provistariding.co.nz/) for their brillant service. Alougth my birthday isn't until Tues I had to open them up straight away. I am not that worried about putting them on a horse at the momment as they would get DIRTY! lol.

Well putting the boots on Mousie has been delayed as he has pulled up lame, I'm pretty sure it will be an absess and would burst out in time, but I will just keep an eye on it. I am really gutted as I was off showjumping on the Taieri in the indoor arena.

The horses are booked into to get their teeth done on Wednesday by a new dentist that I haven't used, but apparently is the best, and only the best will do!!

We had a busy afternoon picking up stones on the new track proper at the Winton Racecourse, was our last duty as Greg as president, the AGM is next Sunday and his 2 years is up.

17th August.......WET WET WET

Mousie leading himself into his box, this is his daily rountine, makes it easier for me, I can lead Nancy who isn't quiet as keen to go inside.

Well I thought we were wet before but nothing compares to how wet we are now. I wasn't sure what the weather was going to do, so I worked Dag first thing in the morning, we both got soaking wet but she was better behaved as the mud was bogging her down somewhat.

Took me ages to dry her off, put an extra underrug on her and let her warm up in the day box before I put her outside with Donny with a bale of hay to share.

Typical Murphy's law it was a lovely, if not a bit chilly afternoon, so I got to work Donny, he was fresh after his day off yesterday, things were going ok, until a family on bike cycled past, if that wasn't enough to look at out bounds a big barking black lab, which scared the young ones which inturn set Donny off at a full gallop, took all my strength to pull him up, not that he is dirty but wasn't really fair when the young ones in the middle of the track were racing him!! But we got over that and he settled in to work well, even his canter work was good.

Both horses had to cross the streams and canter through all the surface water, I think Donny really enjoyed it, put his head down and powered through it, if the water is still there tomorrow I am going to set some hay bales up on the other side to get mousie used to jumping in and out of water.....should be interesting as he hasn't been worked since Jill on Thursday due to the weather.